Abstract
Diffusion of innovations has gained a lot of attention and concerns different scientific fields. Many studies, which examine the determining factors of technological innovations in the agricultural and agrifood sector, have been conducted using the widely used Technology Accepted Model, for a random sample of farmers or firms engaged in agricultural sector. In the present study, a holistic examination of the determining factors that affect the propensity of firms to innovate or imitate, is conducted. The diffusion of ICT tools of firms which are engaged in the NACE 02/03 as well as in the NACE 10/11 classifications for 49 heterogeneous national markets is examined, using the Bass model. The innovation parameter is positively associated with rural income, female employment, export activity and education of farmers, while the imitation parameter is increased in countries whose societies are characterized by uncertainty avoidance.
Highlights
The adoption of technological innovation by firms in the agricultural and food sector is not new and inevitably has gained a lot of importance, due to the fact that technological updatesAnn Oper Res (2020) 294:501–514 contribute in the increase of production, employment and eventually income (Feder et al 1985).Other scholars argue that an increase in growth productivity of the agricultural sector may cause a de—agriculturalization and a decline of the employment in agriculture (Üngör 2013)
The diffusion of ICT in firms, whose main activities are included in NACE classification 02 and 03, subjects to considerable variations across countries
In the USA the diffusion of ICT tools for firms in NACE 02 and 03 classifications is faster and more intense compared to other countries, while in Norway and UK the diffusion pattern is identical (Fig. 2)
Summary
The adoption of technological innovation by firms in the agricultural and food sector is not new and inevitably has gained a lot of importance, due to the fact that technological updatesAnn Oper Res (2020) 294:501–514 contribute in the increase of production, employment and eventually income (Feder et al 1985).Other scholars argue that an increase in growth productivity of the agricultural sector may cause a de—agriculturalization and a decline of the employment in agriculture (Üngör 2013). Rural sociology made a great impact by identifying the economic and social characteristics which adopter categories possessed in the adoption of hybrid seed corn by Iowa farmers (Ryan and Gross 1943). These traits are among others age, formal education, size of farms, organizational participation, attendance at organization meetings, information access and cosmopolitanism. Based on this theory, scholars have followed and examined the impact that those characteristics have on the decision of farmers to adopt technological innovations or ICT tools In specific, Batterink et al (2006) evaluated the factors related to Dutch agrifood industry using survey and resulted in the fact that innovation subsidies have a positive effect on product and process innovation and that firms which are strongly market oriented tend to be successful in product innovation
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